Is Welding the HOT new career?

It seems everywhere I turn these days someone is promoting welding to women. One reason is that the American Welding Society has a new president–a woman named Nancy Cole who was the first woman to graduate with a degree in metallurgical engineering from University of Tennessee.

“There is a dire shortage of skilled workers in the welding industry and I’m looking forward to focusing on changing that in 2013,” said Cole. “My goal as president this year is to celebrate women in welding and help fill the need for properly skilled and educated welding professionals.”

The AWS recently produced this video, showcasing the opportunities for women in the industry.

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4 comments on “Is Welding the HOT new career?”:

HI Carmen
I think the industry has woken up and smelled the coffee! Women are needed in all industries and especially welding with the major shortage of skilled welders.
But women in welding is not a new thing, Florence Pace of England welded a million sten gun parts during World War 2. She and her husband then went on to run JB Pace a welding company in the UK which is still going strong. She has just celebrated her 100th birthday!
In my company http://www.westermans.com we supply welding equipment and I am coming across more female welders each week but either for the light industry or research. Are there many in the heavy industry sectors like Oil and Gas or Ship building???

Yes, it is true that women in welding is a new thing…. what I find disheartening is that even though in the US we passed Title 9 in the 70s which mandated equality in education, and formed the EEOC to monitor equality in the workforce and enforce equal opportunity laws, women still only make 78% of what men earn and of all the employed welders, only 2% are women. In the trades overall the percentage is something like 5%

I believe a big part of the problem is lack of awareness. I didn’t even know it was an option for me as woman to learn how to weld… in fact, when I signed up for Shop class in high school I was counseled out of it. “All the GIRLS are taking home ec,” Mr. Decker told me.

Thanks for the info on FLorence Pace. I’d seen mention of her before… I think I’ll go find out more!

I don’t want to sound negative about women in welding but in my experience most of the work is rather aggressive in nature, at least the opportunities that pay. I’ve worked with a couple female welders and i do say that they produced quality fabrications but one of them was 23 years old and already had back surgery and the other had severe sciatic nerve issues. Honestly i believe “MOST” females are not physically built to sustain such work for an extended amount of time, like men.

If your a female considering welding as a career think about what kind of physical shape your going to be in 20-30years down the road. If your smart become educated and get on the analytical side of the operation.

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